How it All Happened
by j-drive
Summary: Ratchet's story before he fatefully stumbled onto a rather strange blog and joined Fang's Gang. Kidnapped by a stranger in a white lab coat, 11-year old Ratchet has to learn how to survive in a hell called The School. Rated T for kind of language
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! j-Drive here, reporting from the deep cesspool of her polluted mind.  
>Seriously, one of my favorite characters is Ratchet (right after Iggy, of course), and I can't believe there are so few fanfictions surrounding him!<strong>

**I mean, he's so f'ing awesome!  
>So, I'm creating this fanfic purely for the sake of my beloved Ratchet.<strong>

**It's everything from his kidnapping to when he met Fang.**

**Read (hopefully), Enjoy (hopefully), and Review (hopefully), PLEASE! :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I am nowhere near awesome enough to own this awesome series**

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><p>Chapter One<strong><br>**

11-year old Ratchet woke up feeling like hell. He tried to reach for his throbbing forehead and realized his wrists were tied together behind his back. As awareness began to creep back in, he also realized he was gagged and in a large, dark container that was constantly bumping up and down. He was probably in a truck or something. His naturally sensitive ears picked up heavy breathing. One other person was with him, maybe two. He tried to sit up, but just the small movement brought daggers of pain down on his head. _How the heck did I even get here? _ he thought, groaning behind the gag. He closed his eyes (though that made little difference) and tried to think back…

_He'd gotten into another fight with mom. About his dad. He stormed outside, furious, hands jammed inside of his jacket pockets to keep out the pre-winter chill. Ratchet caught the sound of crackling foliage to his right and saw a guy in a white lab coat, walking around in the small forest next to their house. The bumbling scientist had looked so out of place in the sea of red, orange, and yellow. Ratchet held back a laugh, wiped his eyes of any remaining tears, and walked towards the seemingly lost man. Old leaves crunched underfoot as he made his way towards him. "Hey. Are you lost?" The scientist whirled around, nearly dislodging his round glasses. Ratchet snickered and shook his empty hands in front of him as a sign of peace. "No, really, I just want to help! I live around here. My name is... Ratchet." The false name had just popped up in his mind; he decided to use the name of a character from a cartoon he'd used to watch as a kid. No sense to give a complete stranger his real name._

_"No, it's fine," the scientist said, a little flustered. "Really, all I came here for was a specimen."_

_"A specimen? Cool! Is it for like an experiment or something?"_

_"Yes, actually. And I think you'll do."_

_"What?" Ratchet hadn't understood what he'd said until another man from behind snuck up on him and locked his arms to his side with a steel one-handed bear hug. The man clapped his hand over Ratchet's mouth before Ratchet could think to scream._

_"Yes, I think you'll do just fine." the scientist smiled as he pulled out a syringe full of cloudy liquid out of his coat. Ratchet's eyes widened and he struggled uselessly. The scientist jabbed it into the soft flesh of Ratchet's arm and plunged the contents into his bloodstream. Ratchet's limbs seemed to die on him when a fog crept into his mind, blocking out all rational thought as he fell unconscious…_

Ratchet opened his eyes slowly. He tried to force the prickly oncoming tears to stay back, but they one managed to fall out, sliding down his cold cheeks and sinking into the rough cloth of the gag. Once the first one squeezed out, a dam seemed to break, and he couldn't stop crying, his sobs quiet and muffled.

"Are… are you okay?" The unexpected sound of another person's voice broke into his grief, making him look up and squint through the darkness. With his innately clear vision he could make out the face of a young girl as old as him. He tried to answer but his reply was incoherent. "Here, Reina here has a knife- she'll cut off your restraints." A taller girl who looked 17 or so walked in next to him and took out a small penknife. At first, he tried to shy away, but it became evident the older girl knew what she was doing and didn't have any intention to gut him. She carefully sawed away at the gag, then at the cloth bounding his hands and ankles together. When she was done, she rubbed away the tears on his cheeks with an expressionless face, peering into his eyes. Ratchet looked away, not wanting to meet her intense, dark gaze.

"It's going to be okay," she said finally, her voice gentle and low, smoothing his dark-red brown hair down. The gesture was so kind and comforting Ratchet couldn't help but break down again, sobbing into Reina's thin shirt.

"Who is that?" Ratchet stopped crying to look up at a tall boy around Reina's age, emerging into Ratchet's line of vision.

"It's just another boy," Reina said, pocketing her knife. "They took him, too." The boy nodded, as if he understood everything that was happening.

"Is that it?" the younger girl who'd first found Ratchet asked.

"It's just us four," the boy replied, ruffling his sleek jet-black hair. His brows were furrowed in concentration and worry. "Guys, listen close," he murmured, making all of them lean in closer. His charismatic aura of control and natural leadership immediately made him the person in charge. "They can't leave us in here forever. When they open the truck, don't care about anything, just run away as fast as you can. Don't stop for anything, don't look out for anyone else. Just worry about yourself and your main objective is to _get the hell away_ from these creeps. Okay?"

Ratchet nodded, absorbing what the older boy said. He spent the next half-hour or so planning his getaway, reviewing what would happen and playing out different scenarios. He had to be quick. He had to be careful. He had to _escape_.

He must have dozed off or something, because he was awakened by the little girl. She put her finger to her lips, and Ratchet noticed the distinct sensation of the truck slowing down.

"Get ready," the boy whispered, crouching like a sprinter at the starting line. Reina took out her knife, and the little girl pushed herself against the side of the truck right in front of the opening. Ratchet got ready to run, bending down low. The truck stopped, and the driver got off, making the truck lift up a considerable two inches.

Something creaked, and Ratchet was only temporarily blinded by the bright light that came in when the driver opened the back.

"GO!" the boy screamed, leaping forward. Ratchet was close behind, instinctively shielding his eyes from the outside light.

"Hey!" There were about 15 white-clad scientist people surrounding the back of the truck, but the older boy had just them aside to make room, aggressively shoving them away. They had parked in a desert-like area, maybe in Arizona or Nevada. There was nowhere to hide, nothing but empty land. He heard the older boy swear, but they all continued running. Ratchet could hear Reina and the other girl panting behind him. The scientists were yelling, shouting orders.

Then, a shot rang out.

The older boy fell, clutching his left side underneath his ribs. He cried out, and the momentum of his sprint sent him rolling several feet before he skidded to a stop, half-conscious. Ratchet almost slowed down.

_Almost_.

Reina gasped, screaming, "Ben!" She stopped and ran back to the older boy, kneeling by him, pressing her hands to his wound. Another shot rang out and Ratchet cried out as a bullet painfully grazed his thigh, burning like hell. A motorcycle drove up to where he was and the driver leveled a shotgun at his forehead.

"Take another step and die where you stand."

Consumed by fear, he froze, tears streaking down his dirty face. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Reina and Ben were handcuffed and tied, and the little girl was in the same situation as him.

He let the man swing him up painfully onto the motorcycle and drive him back. Bitter anger and frustration welled up inside of him.

"You thought you could run away?" the man yelled laughing cruelly. "There isn't any other civilization in the next 10 miles!" They all met up behind the barbed wire fence surrounding the large, sand-colored building.

An imposing woman with her long blonde hair tied up in a high pony-tail strode up to face them from across the fence, tapping in a code to make a section of it to slide away. The "scientists" pushed Ratchet off the motorcycle and dumped him on the other side, along with the little girl, Reina, and Ben.

"Welcome," the blonde woman said, adjusting her red horn-rimmed glasses, "to the School."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey, guys! I wasn't planning on really submitting this, but I realized some people actually read the first chapter, so just for their sake I uploaded the next chapter.**

**Really, please. For necessary cheesy encouragement/criticism/acknowledgement, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! Even if it's only one word, just let me know you care!**

**So, I introduce, CHAPTER 2!  
>And I really mean it, please review if you read it.<br>**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Maximum Ride or any of it's characters. Reina, Ben, Adele, and I guess some of the White Coats are mine... I guess...**

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

Ratchet almost broke down again when one of the "scientists" grabbed his hands roughly and cuffed him. But as he caught Reina's steady look, somewhat reassuring, trying to make him feel just a little better about this entire horrible, hopeless situation, something inside of him hardened. He swallowed the tears and sobs back, standing up a bit straighter. Out of the corner of his eye, he could swear Reina and Ben smiled, wryly if not encouragingly. He wouldn't cry. He wouldn't give the sick creeps the satisfaction. He wouldn't cry. Never again.

The blonde woman led them inside of the "School", and Ratchet immediately knew this wasn't any kind of educational facility. The setting in front of him looked like it was cut out of a regular hospital, clean and white. The air reeked of alcohol and disinfectant. Ratchet had never liked the smell of medical stuff, but this was a thousand- no, a _million_ times worse.

Because there were cages and dog crates of mutant _things_ everywhere. White-coated people strolled around as casually as if they weren't surrounded by… monsters. Ratchet backed up instinctively at the sight this new place. He bumped against a white-coated man who chuckled at his horrified expression.

"Don't like it?" he murmured almost breezily into Ratchet's ear. "Well, you should get used to it." He gestured to the room with a flourish, smiling widely. "This is your home for the rest of your now short, miserable life!" Ratchet shied back in revulsion, and as if on cue, all of the messed up creatures starting making noise, trying to convey their feelings with their misshapen mouths, reaching uselessly with their disfigured hands. They were vaguely human in appearance… almost as if…

_Oh my god_, Ratchet realized, bile rising up in his throat. _They used to be human… like me… they used to be like me… _

_I'm going to be like them_.

With this horrible revelation, his legs refused to hold him up anymore and he collapsed. He struggled to get up, to break the cuffs, to do anything to escape this horrible place, to do anything to run away from this ungodly place.

"Little monkey sure is squirmy," one man said, pulling Ratchet up painfully from his prone position. "This one is…" He checked a tattoo on Ratchet's chest, on a stop underneath his collarbone, right on top of his heart. Ratchet hadn't even noticed it. It was a barcode with row of different numbers, as if a serial code. Apparently it spelled out something, because the man said, "Ratchet. What kind of name is that? Either way," he pushed Ratchet forward, farther away from the entrance to the building, the _exit_ of the building, "It's not as if anyone cares."

Only by enormous willpower did Ratchet manage to keep in the tears, taking deep breathes, blinking the moisture away from his eyes. He would not cry.

They walked down the large room, towards a white set of double doors. People walked with gurneys carrying flailing mutants as indifferently as if they were taking out the trash.

They probably were, in some cases.

As they walked past the double doors, the mutants became more human in appearance. A majority of them were humanoid, and most of those actually looked human, like people. Some of them gazed at Ratchet with pity, others regarded them warily, yet others looking at them without any expression at all, their faces a blank mask of defeated understanding of their miserable fate.

"In there," another woman, almost identical to the one who'd been there to first greet them, gestured at an empty medium-sized dog crate. The man who'd been carrying Ben untied his arms from his sides and took his cuffs off. Ben, who'd been limp and inert during their walk into the room, suddenly jumped into action, swinging a fist around to knock out his own guard, then took out at least two others before the blonde woman there took out a gun and almost lazily shot him in the neck. Ratchet froze and Reina gasped. The little girl who'd been with them screamed. Then, Ratchet noticed it had just been a tranquilizer gun, and Ben was simply knocked out. The remaining guards shoved Ben, bloody and bruised, into his dog crate, none too gently. The dark-haired boy groaned, hand against the bullet wound under his ribs.

"You, in there," the blonde woman said to Reina, unfazed by Ben's attempt to escape. Reina was tossed into a crate next to Ben, where she didn't mind the _thunk_ of the crate closing, only holding Ben's pale hand with worry etched on her face.

"They can go in those," the woman said, checking something off on her clipboard. Ratchet was forced into a small cage, next to the girl his age. "There. All done. We won't need more specimens for at least… four months."

_Four months… Is that's how long I have left? Four months._

While contemplating this depressing piece of information, Ratchet suddenly felt something warm envelope his hand. He looked down in surprise and saw the girl his age holding his hand, a terrified expression on her face, tears tracing her cheeks.

"I… I'm scared…"

Ratchet looked at her, seeing himself reflected in her eyes. "It'll… It'll… be okay. It'll be okay." Her face softened. She knew she was probably never getting out. But knowing there were others with her, going through the same pain, being there for her, just made it seem better. Even though it was just an illusion.

"My name is Ratchet," he murmured, leaning towards her.

"I know," she replied, wiping her cheeks. "I'm Adel."

"Nice to meet you."

"I just met you… but I'm glad you're here with me."

Ratchet was quiet, but arranged his hand so their hands were entwined, clasped together, holding the merest sliver of hope, feeding that small possibility at least a little warmth.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey, guys! Super sorry for not updating in so long! I mean, school just started and all that.**

**Uber-Super thanks to ~TrinaCat for reviewing!  
>Please, readers: follow her example, please! DON'T BE LAZY!<br>**

**Remember, reviews make me happy!**

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><p>Chapter 3<p>

Ratchet woke up blearily, taking in his dim surroundings. He wasn't surprised or shocked. He remembered every last miserable detail about the day before, and he wished for a moment that _this_ was the dream and he could go back to the hazy unconsciousness of dreamland.

Reina was still holding Ben's hand, and they were both sleeping. Sometime while Ratchet had been sleeping one of the scientists must have patched up Ben's bullet wound because now he was shirtless, dirty, blood stained bandages wrapped around his ribs. Despite his skinny, food-deprived body, Ben was still moderately muscular, toned under clammy yet tan skin.

While he'd been sleeping, Adel's warm, soft hand had slipped out of his. He wanted to hold it again, and maybe not feel so hopeless and lonely anymore.

"WAKE UP, BRATS!" Harsh artificial lights exploded into Ratchet's vision, several scientists strolling in almost happily, taking wide strides, eager for work today. "Today, we're going to suit up one of our new arrivals. After all, we don't want them to feel lonely, do we?" A robust man laughed heartily, pulling out a small flashlight from a pocket.

"Shut up, cretin," the blonde woman from before snapped, snatching the flashlight from his hand. She walked briskly to Ratchet's cage and reached through the bars to shine the light in his eyes, forcing his lids open two latex-covered fingers, then down his throat. She clicked her tongue, and moved onto Adel. She clicked her tongue again, then checked Reina, who was right next to Adel. She smiled, clicked the flashlight off, and nodded. Immediately two of the scientists walked over and unlocked it, flipping a combination too fast for Ratchet's eyes to follow.

"Don't touch her!" Ben roared, throwing himself at their direction, gripping the bars of his cage tightly. They pulled Reina out, who was kicking and struggling, but not screaming. She twisted aggressively in their grip, trying to reach for her pocket.

"Really, Ms. Blackthorn; I didn't think you'd underestimate us like that." The blonde woman nodded at the two men restraining her, and they looped a blindfold around her head and cuffed her hands behind her back. "We took the time to confiscate _all_ of your petty, little weapons. You, too, Mr. Light." Ben breathed heavily and glared at her with a murderous look in his eyes. If looks could kill, the blonde woman would already be 6 feet under.

"We're ready, Ms. Ingles," one scientist reported.

"Okay," she replied, her thin lips spreading into something that resembled a smile. "Come with us, Reina," They dragged Reina outside of the room, who went without anymore struggle, but with an indignant walk, like she was only _letting_ them escort her.

"D-don't worry," an older boy stuttered, curled up in his crate. "T-they never kill on-on the f-first day…"

"Great," Ben said sourly, "that makes everything better."

"Who're you?" Ratchet asked. He was curious about the other occupant of this School; he needed to learn as much as he could about everything if he was to survive here.

"M-My name is John," he replied. "T-the sci-scientists… We a-all just called them w-whitecoats. P-people like that blonde lady, th-they're t-technicians… Some of the o-others, they're c-called Erasers. T-They… they're mutants, too…"

"Mutants?" Ratchet asked, leaning closer to the frail boy.

"T-that's what they do here. They e…e-e-experiment on us, mutate us. A-all in the name of science…" He grimaced. "B-but sometimes, the experiments go w-wrong." He looked up with his strange, half-transparent gray eyes. "Y-You know… I d-didn't always have this stutter…" His hand unconsciously went to his throat, where Ratchet noticed there was a long, jagged scar winding around his neck like a hangman's noose. "Th-there was a time when… when a-all of us were… n-normal… Like you…" He smiled with a de-attached expression. "B-but don't worry. D-don't be scared. It s-stops h-hurting after a while…"

Ratchet swallowed with some difficulty. His throat was dry, and his stomach was collapsing in on itself. "Do you know what they're going to do with her?"

"H-hurt her… o-open her stomach up… examine her g-guts… But they won't kill her." He closed his eyes and exhaled shakily. "Th-they don't have t-the mercy to k-kill all of us… They a-aren't that nice…" He chuckled weakly, like that was a sick joke they all shared. "They're n-never that nice." There was silence, so quiet it was almost agonizing.

For what seemed like forever, Ratchet sat in his cage, worrying his heart out about Reina, wondering what they were doing to her, wondering if she was okay. He tried sleeping, but it seemed impossible with the doubt gnawing away at the corner of his mind.

After what could have been one hour, 10 hours, or even several days, the whitecoats came back, dragging Reina between them. Her clothes were speckled with blood. Ratchet gasped, his heart falling into this stomach, and Ben immediately perked up, sharp eyes following the whitecoats' every move.

They dumped Reina back into her crate, where she moaned and struggled to sit up.

"What happened? What did they do to you?" Ben clasped Reina's hand between his.

"I… I don't know…" she muttered, shaking her head. Ratchet could see glimpses of fresh stitches around Reina's stomach and arms, bandages winding around certain parts of her torso and limbs. "It… it was so… weird…" She passed out, head dropping on her chest.

"Reina!" Ben carefully shook her shoulder, concern in his voice.

"Don't worry, brats." What Ratchet assumed was an Eraser smiled. "She'll be fine. For now. But you never know." He leaned up close and stared at Ratchet in the eyes. "Any day, she might never come back." He laughed as he followed Ms. Ingles outside the rooms. Ratchet could only think of Reina's stitches and bandages, and John's haunted gray eyes, the loop of scar around his neck.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hey! Sorry, I've been really busy recently. This chapter is ridiculously short.**

**Once again, SUPEREPIC thanks to _~TrinaCat_** for being THE ONLY REVIEWER!  
><strong>Please review if you want more.**

**Once again, thanks to _~TrinaCat_! Thanks so much!**

**DISCLAIMER: Come on, could I really own Maximum Ride?  
><strong>

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><p>Chapter 4<p>

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?" A heavy set man, dangerously handsome, towered over a slender man a few inches shorter and probably several years younger.

"You're outdated, Dag," the younger man said, staring up with a cool expression.

By now, all of the experiments had looked up to observe what was happening. It had been several hours since Reina had come back, and it had been rather uneventful since then. Ratchet watched, curious. Both men were Erasers, apparently, but the younger one must have been a… _newer_ version.

"Outdated, Kin? Outdated, my ass," Dag growled. With a ripple of skin and muscles he transformed into a horrible half-creature, only part human. Ratchet choked in disgust and backed away on instinct. "You new generations, so skinny and fragile… like little birds." He spat on the floor and stood in front of Kin, bulging muscles in the smaller guy's face. Ratchet found the willpower to look closer, and saw that Dag was some kind of werewolf, a half-lupine monster.

"You have no idea what we 'little birds' are capable of, Dag," Kin said casually, turning around and walking away. "But I assure you, it's a lot more than _your_ kind can do."

"SAY THAT TO MY FACE!" Dag roared, leaping at Kin's unprotected back. Ratchet half covered his eyes, fully expecting the younger man to be torn to shreds by Dag's razor sharp claws.

Without warning, Kin darted to one side, leaving Dag to travel several feet ahead with his own momentum. Dag's claws sliced open the wall and he yanked them out with fury. Now Kin had changed, too, but it was nowhere near as dramatic as Dag's alteration. His ears were larger, pointier, and his eyes were glowing with a feline yellow. He had grown claws, which, unlike Dag's yellowed ones, were black and were so sharp they made Dag's look dull in comparison.

"I am a Generation 76," Kin said in his usual, calm voice. "You are _nothing_ compared to me."

"Keep telling yourself that, little bird," Dag snarled, lunging forward again. Kin simply dodged again, but this time Dag was ready and turned around, lashing out with his claws.

Blood splattered on the floor and stained the front of Ratchet's cage red. Ratchet stared at the scarlet liquid covered on his skin and clothes, but his attention was quickly diverted to the sound of Dag's face sliding off of Kin's claws, a sick, wet sound that seemed too loud to Ratchet. Dag's body fell to the floor with a heavy thud, sending more blood splattering onto other experiments. Adel gasped and back up as far as she could; she was breathing quickly, staring with horror at Dag's corpse. Kin had ducked again, and had driven his claws into Dag's unprotected face without hesitation, the tips protruding out of the back of Dag's head. He'd died almost instantly.

Ratchet looked at the other experiments. Only the younger ones looked horrified. The rest of them were almost indifferent, apathetic to a death of one of the wardens. Reina was asleep, the bare skin of her arm touching Ben's through the bars of their cages. Ben was pale, but as unsympathetic as the others. Adel was colorless, shaking as she looked at Dag's dead body. Ratchet realized with shock that John was actually smiling a little, unconsciously rubbing the huge scar on his neck. Of course the experiments wouldn't have any soft spots for the people who helped make their life the hell it was.

"Okay, children, we-" Ms. Ingles, who'd just entered the room, stopped instantly at the sight of Dag's blood and body, the four gaping holes in his mutilated face. She only frowned, like one would at a child who'd misbehaved. "Kin, did you do this?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And it didn't occur to you that we might be short on Erasers right now?" she said mildly, staring straight into Kin's eyes.

"It did, ma'am."

"And you still did this?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Go clean it up, Kin. Now." Kin effortlessly lifted Dag's body up and slung it over his shoulder. "No dinner for you today as punishment," she said, scribbling something down in the clipboard she seemed to carry everywhere she went.

"Yes, ma'am."

And although Kin's face had stayed impassive during the entire fight, Ratchet could swear he saw a small smirk cross his face as he walked through the double doors.

"Childish, capable of going against better judgment," Ms. Ingles murmured, writing something else down. "Minor modifications. Now who is going to clean up the rest of this mess?"

Later, some Erasers managed to wipe the last bloodstain off the white tiled floor. They tossed a bag of _something_ in every experiment's cage and a small bottle of water. Ratchet greedily gulped the water down and by observing the others, guessed the gray stuff in the bag was something edible. He tried it. It was tasteless, but filling, so he ate everything, even turning the bag inside out to lick the remains off. Strangely full and very tired, he fell asleep.

He awoke to the sound of Adel screaming.

"NO! PLEASE! ANYONE, HELP!" Some white-coats were dragging her and Ben out of their cages, getting ready to perform experiments on them, no doubt.

Ratchet was wide-awake in a split second, watching helplessly as one white-coat stuck the needle of a syringe into Adel's arm and injected the contents into her bloodstream. Immediately her eyes dulled and she went limp, unconscious. Ben went with the same indignant pride as Reina, only _letting_ the white-coats take him.

Ratchet watched them swing past the set of double doors, and he exhaled explosively, holding his head, holding back the tears. Why wouldn't this horrible dream end? It all felt so unreal… Why wasn't it unreal?

"It h-helps to cry," John murmured, looking at him. "I never stopped crying u-until they… they ch-changed me…"

"I'm not going to cry," Ratchet snapped, but looking at John's weary, tired face, he regretted his outburst. "Sorry… what do you mean, changed you?"

"It took y-years, b-but o-one day, a-a couple years ago, t-they finally got it right…" He closed his eyes, shutting his strange, translucent gray eyes from the cruel reality of the School. "I… I see things. I-I c-can s-see e-everything… I-I can't stop t-the images f-from coming. I j-just can't s-stop them. W-what you're t-thinking, what t-they're thinking, w-what everyone i-is seeing." His eyes opened slowly, and he stared at Ratchet. "It's n-normal to think I'm c-crazy. H-honestly, I-I don't really know my-myself anymore... Everyone h-here, whether e-experiment or n-not, is so… i-inhuman- so below h-humanity w-we actually be-belong l-l-locked away i-in the S-school."

"Don't think like that," Ratchet said, shaking his head. "Something will happen. We'll survive." Although he'd just said that to partially reassure John, he realized he actually believed himself- he actually believed he'd escape. John just smiled grimly.

"Y-you're so… naive." His smile was swept away. "I've seen dozens of e-experiments d-die inside of t-these very walls. N-never to see the light o-of day a-again. T-they all thought they w-would s-somehow escape, s-somehow be a-able to see the sun again, t-to find th-their families again, j-just like you."

Ratchet was silent, John's last, depressing truth settling over him like a thick fog.

Just when he thought Adel and Ben wouldn't come back, the white-coats entered the room with them; the two were limp and covered in stitches and blood like Reina. Ratchet peered through the spaces between the bars of his cage. He could only see Adel, but the sight of her still breathing and in the loosest sense "okay", that was enough for him at the moment.

"Are you okay?" he asked, leaning closer to her.

"I… I don't know…" she breathed, frowning slightly. "I don't… remember…" With that she fell unconscious. With Reina, Ben, and Adel all unconscious, Ratchet couldn't remember when he'd last felt so alone and helpless.

Of course, except for that time when his dad…

When his dad had…

He shoved that thought away. That was nothing in comparison to this. That was the past. Dad was gone. He had to focus on surviving- and possibly- escaping.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Ugh, Writer's Block. Sorry, dudes.**

**Again, I must thank _~TrinaCat_ for reviewing.**

**Dudes! I mean, seriously! I _know_ for a fact she/he isn't the only one reading it! So why the hell you other guys ain't reviewing! Seriously, I'm getting super pissed! Review or else I'll- I'll KILL Ratchet.**

**Hmph.**

**Nah, I won't kill him, but I'll do something... _bad_...**

**Sorry this chapter isn't as good as I wanted it to be.**

**DISCLAIMER: Maximum Ride can never be mine to own.  
><strong>

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><p>Chapter 5<p>

Ratchet sat lonely in his cage, thinking about nothing, and then thinking about thinking about nothing. The past couple of days after Ben and Adel had been taken away had been uneventful. It was difficult to keep track of time in this white limbo, but at night, roughly 12 o'clock, they shut down all of the lights, leaving all of the experiments in the dark with the buzzing of random generators keeping them from sleeping restfully. At the start of every new day, maybe around 6 or 7, they turned on all of the lights again without warning, waking everyone up abruptly from fitful sleep.

It had been four days since he'd been kidnapped. Four days. Four days of his life taken away from him.

Suddenly, the lights turned on, white light pushing back the darkness of the School's artificial night, making the nightmare once again all-too-real.

Unlike Adel, who hated it when the white-coats turned off the lights, Ratchet was relieved at the end of every day when they shut down everything. In the dark, even with his good vision, he couldn't see the deformity of the School. Aside from the breathing of the others, he could almost imagine he was somewhere safe. He could be anywhere he wanted to be when the lights were off, not surrounded by mutants. He didn't want to face the… the sickness. The inhumanity. He didn't dare try to imagine what it was like for John, who, whether he wanted to or not, saw everything. Whatever nightmares everyone was having, he was having, too. Whatever sick, twisted, sadistic thought a white-coat was having, he had to go through it all, living every detail. Ratchet knew he would go crazy if he was like John.

Adel was afraid of the dark, and Ratchet had been, too, before he'd been introduced to the School. Ratchet thought tiredly of his life before the School. It seemed like an eternity ago, when he didn't have to worry about being chosen for an experiment, when he didn't have to watch experiments gone wrong beg for just a few more moments alive, just a few more moments-

Because in those few moments they wanted, they thought that by some miracle, they'd escape and see the sun again.

They escaped in the end, but not in the way they wanted to.

Had it really only been four days? Ratchet looked at the left-most corner of his cage, where he in the wood he scratched in the number of times the white-coats mercifully turned off the lights. It really was four.

"Morning, mutants," a white-coat announced cheerfully, walking in through the double doors. Several more white-coats followed, along with Kin and a few more Erasers, and of course, Ms. Ingles.

"So, what'll it be today, Ms. Ingles?" A woman white-coat asked, sweeping her hair into a ponytail. Ms. Ingles checked her clipboard, and her mouth twitched up into her from of a smile.

"We'll be testing Subject 4115C66E5 today," she said. An Eraser grunted as he walked up to Ratchet's cage and opened it, pulling him out. Ratchet was at first in shock, numb to the rough hands handling him. Then, reality kicked in and he started struggling against the handcuffs, screaming. Although he hated his cage with a passion, it was the first place he wanted to be in that very second. In his cage, safe from the mysterious experiments he had nightmares about.

"Oh, shut up," the Eraser holding him said, back-handing Ratchet hard in the face. The blow was so powerful it knocked Ratchet senseless for a minute; long enough for them to take him outside, strap him to a gurney, and roll him down a long aisle. All that went through his dazed head were the stitches Reina, Ben, and Adele had received when they'd come back, the blood stained on their clothes…

"Here we are." They wheeled him into a white check-up room, deceptively innocent looking. The white-coats propped up the gurney so he was upright, held only in place by the tight belts digging into his skin. His bruising cheek hurt like a blacksmith was trying to pound his face flat. He felt a thin line of blood running down from his split lip.

"So, Ratchet," Ms. Ingles said, her face level with his although he would've been much shorter naturally. "That's a strange name you have."

"Screw you," he spat in her face. She withdrew calmly and wiped his spit off her cheek, face expressionless.

"Kin…" she said, writing something down on her clipboard. The tall Eraser punched Ratchet in the stomach without either hesitation or emotion. It felt like a 5 ton freight train had hammered into his body full speed. Ratchet choked, the scream in his throat blocked by pain, and unsuccessfully tried to curl up into a ball, trying to stop from throwing up. His eyes watered up, but he refused to let the tears fall out.

"Now, then," Ms. Ingles looked him in the eye. "Now that introductions are over, let's see how we can use you as a lab subject."

With him tied up, they tested his muscles, squeezing his arms painfully, sticking needles attached to machines into his chest and stomach. They ran tests on his ears, and Ms. Ingles raised her eyebrows at the apparently good results. The white-coats wheeled a huge eye chart 10 feet away from him.

"Okay, read off the letters," Ms. Ingles instructed.

"F. U. C. K. Y. O. U." he recited. Ms. Ingles paused in her writing, peered at the eye chart, confused for a second, then sighed in understanding.

"Kin…" Kin, still puzzled and studying the eye chart, punched Ratchet in the stomach again. All the air escaped Ratchet explosively and with all of the pain he was in, Ratchet wouldn't have been surprised if he was internally bleeding.

"Again," Ms. Ingles said, sighing disappointedly. In defeat, Ratchet rattled off all of the letters he could see, hesitating at the small cricket script a little after halfway. He wondered who could actually read something that small. "You have very good sight and hearing," Ms. Ingles noted, patting Ratchet with fake affection. "We'll make something of you yet." Ratchet grimaced.

"Your heart is next," a white-coat said, pulling in a treadmill and setting it up. After sticking in several electrodes on Ratchet's chest and neck, they untied him, and he walked gingerly to the treadmill, not knowing what to do. "Try to escape," Ms. Ingles said, pulling out a pistol, "and you'll resemble Swiss Cheese in 5 seconds." Ratchet's plan to run out was immediately squashed. He walked quickly in the beginning, but soon, they had him sprinting full out. Sweat was pouring down his face and his chest hurt where Kin had punched him. All he wanted to do was rest, to stop, but the gun pointed at his head and the speed of which he was running prevented him. After a long him, he was allowed to stop, his heart pounding in his head. He wiped away the sweat flowing down his head in buckets and resisted the urge to just collapse and hopefully die.

"Now, for the internal stuff," a white-coat said, smiling eagerly. Ratchet blinked through the sweat covering his eyes.

"Huh?"

Before long he was strapped once again to the gurney, his shirt pushed up to his chest. "Now this'll only take a few minutes," one white-coat said. He reached into the inside of his lab coat to take out a scalpel.

A freaking scalpel.

The next 197 seconds were unbearable, full of blood and pain and screaming. True, it was somewhat dulled by his exhaustion, but in the haze of pain Ratchet couldn't help but pray for death. It was excruciating. Every moment was like an eternity. Ratchet screamed for them to stop, for them to go away, for them to just let him die quickly.

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><p>Eventually, they stitched him up and injected something into his neck. Everything seemed to slow down, and the pain faded away. He felt de-attached to everything happening to him now, and it was harder and harder to remember what had happened.<p>

_Why is there blood on my shirt?_

_Why does it hurt?_

_Why… Why did it hurt?_

_Did it hurt? Why did I think it hurt?_

He somehow ended up in his cage. What had happened? Why-Why was he covered in blood? Adel held his hand and asked him what had happened. He tried to talk, but his lips refused to move. Instead, he fell into a haze, then, into unconsciousness.

What had happened?

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><p><strong>AN: Now I don't usually leave parting messages, but I really am serious this time.**

**Review you motherf'ers.  
><strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Okay, kind of an angsty chapter here. I don't think I'll be writing the 7th chapter for at least a couple of days, so here's Chapter 6 kind of early. **

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**Review.**

**Really.**

**Please.**

**REVIEW.  
><strong>

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><p>Chapter 6<p>

Ratchet woke up, his stomach throbbing with pain as if it had been a target for machine gun practice. He was curiously groggy- he wasn't usually tired after waking up. With leaden hands he felt his stomach to see what was wrong. That was strange. His stomach was discolored with an ugly bruise. Even stranger: he had a lot of stitches going up from his solar plexus to his belly button. His clothes were covered in blood. Ratchet paled. How had this happened? Did they do something to him while he'd been sleeping?

Now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember going to sleep. It was still "day" according to the glaring lights up ahead on the ceiling.

Just when he was about to ask Adel what had happened, the white-coats pressed a button next to the double doors, pressed in a complicated code in the keyboard next to it, the keys making different kinds of beep!s and boop!s, and then flicked a switch and entered another password. Heavy, titanium bars shot out and barred the doors. No one could go in or out.

"Okay, brats, you know the drill," one white-coat sighed. "30 minutes of free time to stretch and talk. No more breaks until next week." With a hiss all of the crates unlocked and everyone rushed out madly, stretching cramped muscles, spreading out on the floor in a rare moment of peace, or just trying to escape the confines of their cages. Ratchet walked out tentatively, wincing as the stitches on his stomach stretched and threatened to pop. He laid down on the cool, linoleum floor, sighing as he stretched out contently for the first time in what seemed like a long time. Adel wobbled next to him and stretched out beside him, hesitantly holding his hand.

"We've survived so far," Ratchet whispered, squinting into the light above him.

"Yeah."

Suddenly, the light was blocked out by Reina's face peering down at him.

"Glad to see you came back," she mentioned tiredly, smiling a little. Ratchet and Adel sat up, and they, Ben, and Reina were sitting in a circle. Even though they hadn't known each other very long, Ratchet felt close to them.

"I'm glad I came back, too," he replied, holding his stitches in fear they might come apart.

"I know this is a little too late, but, we were never properly introduced to each other. " Ben placed a hand on his chest. "I'm Benjamin. Ben. I'm friends with Reina."

"I'm… Jenny. But everyone just calls me Reina."

"I'm Adel."

"I'm Ratchet." Reina punched him playfully.

"Come on, I told you _my_ name. That can't be your real name."

"I'd… rather not." Ratchet felt like bringing out his true name, his real name, would just make this nightmare all too real. His real name belonged outside of this twisted School, just like he did. "But you two look like you've known each other before we were kidnapped," Ratchet changed the subject. "Are you two… siblings? Or…"

"Oh." Reina pushed her brown hair out of her eyes. "Well…"

"We belong to a team. Called the Black Kings. My brother is the leader, and Reina is… was his right-hand assistant. Result was we… tended to spend a lot of time together. We were caught together."

"The Black Kings- sounds more like a gang," Ratchet thought aloud, secretly thinking that sounded very, _very_ cool.

"Oh, not a _gang_," Ben corrected, sounding like he'd explained this a thousand times over. "Gangs are full of thugs and ruffians and posers who only hang around each other to feel better about smoking and drinking. Teams are street families. The Dan, who is the leader and representative of the others; he or she takes care of his team like family. There are the assistants, who help the Dan with his or her job. Then the rest of the team is no lesser than the Dan or the assistants, but all help the team as a whole to survive the darker parts of the city."

"Oh…" Ratchet grinned. "That's sounds so cool."

"It is," Ben and Reina said in unison. They glanced at each other and smiled. "Tell you what, _Ratchet_," Ben said, "when we get out of all of this shit, and if your parents don't mind, we promise we'll take you in as a Black King."

"Really?" Ratchet asked, eyes shining.

"Of course," Reina answered. "You, too, Adel," she told the girl, who started in surprise at being addressed. "If you want."

"Oh, really?" she asked, smiling widely. "I would _love_ to come with you guys-" her voice softened, "it's not like I have anyone at home to welcome me back…" She pretended to rub her eye as she wiped away a tear.

"We have no one but each other," Ben said, scooting closer to her and wrapping an arm around both her and Ratchet. Reina came around Ratchet's side and did the same. "All of us experiments, we have to learn how to live together. So we can escape," he whispered the last sentence just loud enough for only them and some close experiments could hear. They perked up at the word, looking at Ben with the glimmer of a seed of something resembling hope in their eyes.

Just then a girl who looked only a few years older than Ratchet crawled up to them, green eyes wide. Her dark blonde hair was long and dirty from a long time of going without care. The strangest thing was, however, her abnormally long legs. They were long and lean, but ghostly pale from lack of sun. From her ankles to mid-thigh they were wrapped in frayed, cloth bandages, and she crawled with a slight limp. "Sorry, but did you really talk about… about… _escape_?" She whispered, large jade eyes darting around. There were only two white-coats and Kin, who all looked rather bored with the quiet chatter.

"You'd better believe it," Ben nodded, murmuring quietly.

"But… how?" By now a lot more experiments were scooting subtly closer, trying not the catch the white-coats' attentions. Out of the corner of his eye Ratchet noticed John was simply sitting in his cage, even with the door wide open, hiding his face in the knees he drew close to his chest and hugged. He seemed to be shaking his head, whispered something over and over again.

"A lot of experiments tried to escape," a boy Ben's age muttered, muddy red hair sticking out of the crowd of mutants, canines sharper and longer than any regular person's should have been. "No one ever made it."

"Well, I'll escape," Ben answered seriously, "And if I die trying, I die trying."

"I'm going with him, no matter what," Reina added almost immediately, and Ratchet and Adel nodded.

"Us, too."

Silence.

"Then I'm coming, too, please?" the girl pleaded quietly.

"And me,"

"Me, too."

"I'll come,"

Quiet voices rose together in agreement, and Ben silently signaled for them to settle down, gesturing at the still-oblivious white-coats.

"Seems like we've got a majority," Reina smiled, raising her eyebrows at the red-headed experiment.

"I never said I wasn't going," the boy grinned, exposing even further his vampiric teeth.

"Good. We have to plan this out. Don't change what you usually do, don't do anything to attract attention. We'll figure this out next time as soon as possible."

Everyone nodded secretly.

"OKAY, BRATS! BREAK TIME IS OVER FOR THE WEEK!" A buzzer sounded and everyone walked reluctantly back to their cages. Ratchet saw the first girl they'd met wobble up to her full height, just 6 feet, and limp back to her cage, and enter her large crate. What was different, however, was the light of hope dully shining in her eyes. The crates closed again, and the bars unblocked the only exit.

Ratchet felt a lot lighter than only 30 minutes ago. He moved to sit more comfortably in the cage, and winced when his stomach protested with pain. He reached for his stomach and was reminded of the stitches and bruise.

"C-curious?" John asked, voice muffled in his position.

"What?"

"I can s-see your thoughts, r-remember?" John inhaled sharply. "You're… w-wondering about what happened. You want to remember b-badly, but n-no matter how h-hard you try to dig back, y-you can't recall a-anything."

"Y-yeah," Ratchet was stunned. That was exactly how he was feeling. "But, wh-what's wrong with you? Does something hurt?"

"Everything hurts!" he shouted; his was voice so greatly muffled no one even looked in their direction. "I-I can hear e-everyone's h-hope. I-it's so… o-overwhelming. It h-hurts… It's s-so similar to b-before, w-when J-Jay tried to e-escape, t-too. Everyone… _e-everyone_… just g-gone…"

"Sorry about that," John, Ratchet said softly, "but everyone's been stuck here for a long t-"

"I know!" he yelled into his knees, "b-but I've been here the l-longest. The l-longest. I've seen… s-so much… It hurt s-so m-much… "

"But Ben will-"

"Ben! Tina! Jay! Miri! All of them! Dead! A-all of them… D-dead…" He began shaking his head again and muttering a certain phrase over and over again.

After a moment only filled with the buzzing of the generator and the murmurs of the other experiments, John spoke up again, his voice more composed. "S-So… You want to kn-know what happened?"

It took Ratchet a while to remember his stitches. "Yeah. But would you know?"

"Every n-new person, they g-get the same treatment. I s-see it. I f-feel it. And r-relive it all over a-again in n-nightmares. A-are you sure you w-want to remember?" Ratchet nodded.

"O… Okay…" John reached out a pale, shaking hand. Ratchet reached out with one of his own and managed to touch his fingertips.

Memories flooded Ratchet's mind, inundating him, flowing in heedless of the overwhelming _pain_. Ratchet tried to pull away, but their fingers were glued together. John was also in obvious hurt, gritting his teeth, frame shuddering. Then, Ratchet couldn't see anything but yesterday. How they'd taken him. How Kin had punched him. How they'd tested him, operated on him. Memories came rushing back in painful clarity and realness. Ratchet could feel every ounce of pain and suffering he'd went through, and he was unaware of anything outside of him other than his fingertips touching John's.

He couldn't stop them.

He couldn't handle everything just _coming_ at him.

With all of his mental strength Ratchet tried to push back at the memories. They halted for a mere second, and that was all it took for Ratchet to shove harder. He could feel John recoiling. Just before they fell apart, a stray memory entered Ratchet's mind accidently. He shuddered as recollection entered his body and took over his mind.

_Everything was red. Alarms were blaring. He was John; healthier, better in both state of body and mind. He was helping his friend Jay lead the other experiments out. Hallways crisscrossed like a maze, like the building itself was trying to keep the mutants in. Although only 12, he was part of the front lines, knocking away white-coats and Erasers even though he was undoubtedly one of the weakest present. _

"_Take care of the technicians first!" John yelled, trying to shield a little 8 year old from the stray bullets that Jay and Michael couldn't manage to block. "That was the mistake Miri made before!"_

"_I remember!" Michael screamed over the pandemonium, some bullets bouncing off of his impenetrable skin. "You just take care of the younger ki-" he choked as he looked disbelievingly at the point of the knife protruding out of his mid-section. He looked up at John, and his eyes were full of sorrow, as if asking John to forgive him for not making it out. Then his eyes glazed over, and Ms. Ingles ripped the knife out of Michael's body._

"_Stupid mutant," she spat, throwing her knife at the ground where Michael lay, eyes unseeing. "You didn't think we'd make you invincible?" John stopped, looking at Michael's corpse, in shock. _

"_You bitch!" Jay screamed, punching Ms. Ingles in the face with his steel skin. She was thrown back, her jaw already bruising. She looked up from where she was crumpled, blood trailing down a corner of her mouth. "You won't escape…"_

_John felt a chill, and that's when everything when wrong. He turned around, and red suddenly filled his vision, unimaginable pain radiating out from his throat. His legs couldn't support him, and he fell. Someone had cut his throat. _

"_John!" Jay roared, trying to simultaneously throw off Erasers, white-coats, and technicians and run to his friend. _

"_L-leave!" John choked, feeling blood pool out of his mouth. Jay's eyes were full of fear and anger when he turned around to receive a knife to his chest. He stood ridged, then fell backwards. Everything blurred and blacked out for a moment, but when John came to, almost everyone was dead. Just like last time. And the time before that. And all the other ones before that. Oh, why, why had he even agreed to this horrible plan? Why was he so stupid? Why couldn't he learn?_

_He was miraculously still alive, although he felt weaker with every passing millisecond. Something shuffled and caught his attention. Jay was dragging himself closer to him, blade still in his chest. _

"_We… almost… made… it…" He sighed, and collapsed. Jay raised a shaky hand and attempted to close the wound in John's throat, but John only cried out in pain. "Almost…" And the hand went limp. John was only slightly aware of the tears falling down his own cheeks. _

"_A-Almost…"_

Ratchet felt himself snap back to the School. Phantom pain laced around his neck and chest. He looked at John, who was staring blankly through the bars of his cage.

"I-I woke up after that. T-the cages w-were full of n-new occupants… No one w-was left b-but me… Just l-like last time. J-just like all of the o-other times before. They'd c-cut open m-my neck all a-around while I was still awake a-after I woke u-up, t-to teach m-me a lesson. Y-you won't escape, R-ratchet. D-don't leave m-me all a-alone again…" His fingers trailed along the thick scar encircling his neck.

"Thanks, John. For… the memories," Ratchet told the older boy. He didn't seem to notice. John just continued to trace the reminder of all of his failures and suffering.

"We a-almost m-made it. Almost…"

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><p><strong>REVIEW.<strong>


	7. Most Possibly the Last Chapter

**A/N: 7th chapter! First mutation!**

**REVIEW. Or seriously. No motivation at all right now.  
><strong>

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><p>Ratchet, after the recent memory exchange with John, was too weak to do anything but fade into a half-conscious state resembling sleep. He couldn't do anything when they dragged Reina out again, strapping her onto a gurney and wheeling her out.<p>

Time passed.

Ratchet felt strength slowly returning to his body, minute after minute, hour after hour, yet there was no sign of Reina.

They gave them their daily meal and, after another stretch of time, turned the lights off, signaling the end of yet another day.

But Reina still didn't come back.

"Where's Reina?" Adel whispered to Ratchet.

"I don't know... and I don't think I want to know..." Ratchet murmured, speaking honestly.

The night was uneventful.

Another day came. Reina's cage was still empty.

"What are those bastards doing to her?" Ben growled suddenly during the day, punching his cage in frustration.

After what seemed like eternity, she was wheeled back in and dumped back in her cage.

"Oh, no," John muttered, glancing at Reina's head, or rather, the white bandages wrapped around it, covering her eyes. "The first mutation is always the worst. Always the worst. She could be waking up with two eyes, four eyes, no eyes..."

At this ominous piece of news, Ratchet bit his lip in worry. _Reina_...

Just then, as if on cue, Reina sat up suddenly, gasping. She swiveled her head to and fro, in distress. "W-what happened?"

"Reina, Reina-" Ben reached through the bars of his cage held Reina's face firmly with his hands, cupping her cheeks. "It's okay. It's Ben. I've got you." Reina calmed down at the sound of his voice, and reached up to touch the bandages wrapped around her face.

"What the-?" She tore off the bandages, and to Ratchet's immediate relief, she still had two eyes. But upon closer examination...

He gasped.

"What did they do-?" The words were out before he could stop them.

"What?" she asked irritably, blinking her eyes. Before, they'd been a warm shade of hazel, but now...

They were a striking golden color, almost feline in appearance.

"They just changed the color of your eyes. I don't know how, but... it's nothing too serious."

"Th-they changed the color of my _eyes_?" Her voice shook. "My eyes..."

"I-It's nothing-" Ratchet tried to say, but Reina interrupted.

"It's not nothing! They changed my face. They changed my _eyes_. How is this nothing?"

Reina shook her head.

"It's not nothing..."

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><p><strong>Okay, I'll admit it.<strong>

**This chapter sucked.**

**I just don't feel like continuing this one.**

**If anyone wants to know how I intended it to end, I'll post the next chapter as the rest of the story and how I wanted everything to play out.**

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